1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a finisher, which is connected to an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine, applying such additional-workings assorting, binding, creasing, folding, and punching to a recording medium (hereinafter referred to briefly as "sheet") such as a recording paper outputted from the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various finishers, which apply various additional-workings to a sheet with an image formed surface which are outputted from such image forming devices as printers and copying machines, have been proposed (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/821,444). The term "additional-workings" as used herein means various working processes such as sorting sheets according to the number of copies, filing sheets with staples, folding sheets in two (hereinafter referred to as "double-folding"), folding sheets in three or in a cross section like a letter Z (hereinafter referred to as "Z-folding"), and punching sheets for filing.
The finisher drives a folding stopper to contact with the leading end of an incoming sheet to form a loop of the sheet, and a pair of folding rollers nips the loop to fold the sheet. The finisher drives a plurality of such folding stoppers to move into or out of relevant conveying paths, or a lone folding stopper to move in the conveying direction, depending on the sheet size and the folding mode, in order to decide the folding position.
The finisher is provided with aligning devices, which are movable in the conveying direction and in the direction perpendicular thereto, for aligning the edge of a sheet when a plurality of sheets having an image formed surface are stacked in preparation for the additional-workings. Further, the finisher is provided with a stapler which staples a sheaf of the aligned sheets. The stapler includes a head unit and the like, which are movable for stapling the sheaf at a proper position.
The conventional finisher, when a sheet is stuck inside, or a jam occurs, removes the stuck sheet as a procedure of restoration from the jam, then returns such moving devices as the folding stoppers, the aligning device, and the head unit of the stapler temporarily to their home positions serving as bases, and moves them to their inceptive positions prior to the occurrence of the jam.
The conventional finisher has a problem that the removal of the stuck sheet as the restoring procedure from the jam is possibly difficult or not satisfactory when the finisher is miniaturized and the moving devices happen to be located inside or close to the conveying path. Further, the finisher has a problem of possibly touching a user to touch the moving devices and inevitably moving them from their normal positions.